Boeing and the Department of Justice on Friday reached a $1.1 billion settlement agreement that will keep the aircraft maker from facing criminal charges related to two fatal plane crashes involving its 737 Max aircraft that killed 346, according to court filings.
As part of the deal, the funds would go toward paying a criminal penalty, the victims’ beneficiaries fund and improving the manufacturer’s compliance, safety, and quality programs. Boeing has agreed to withdraw its guilty plea and admit to conspiracy to obstruct and impede the Federal Aviation Administration’s aircraft evaluation of the company’s operations.
Boeing must also continue to improve its anti-fraud compliance and ethics program as well as retain an independent compliance consultant who will recommend enhancements to its operations and report to the federal government, according to court documents.
Lastly, the deal will obligate the company’s board of directors to meet with the crash victims’ families.
Boeing declined to comment on the deal.
The Justice Department said hiring a compliance expert would reach a balance between the ongoing verification of Boeing’s program improvements and the safety improvements already achieved since last year.
Since Boeing’s doorplug blowout in January 2024, the FAA’s heightened surveillance of its manufacturing operations has included placing full-time, in-person inspectors at each of the company’s major production facilities, the DOJ noted in the court filings. The FAA inspectors conduct audits, investigate complaints and have free access to Boeing personnel to continuously assess safety and compliance.
Boeing reached a settlement about a month before the company was set for a trial by jury on June 23. The Justice Department is expected to file a motion to dismiss the claim after the federal judge finalizes and the parties sign the agreement, according to the court filings.
Families to tell judge to reject deal
The DOJ said in the court filings that it met with the victims’ families earlier this month to discuss the pending agreement before making it final.
Some families are for it and want closure, the agency said. But the majority of the families are against it, saying the DOJ is not working in the public’s interest, according to a court notice filed by their attorneys last week.
“By deciding not to prosecute Boeing and not to take it to court, the government is sending a message to the public that big companies are above the law and justice, even when they kill,” Catherine Berthet, who lost her 28-year-old daughter Camille in the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 crash in March 2019, said in a May 23 statement. “Moreover, this [non-prosecution agreement] can be seen as a message that the families and the Government can be bribed to forget about crime.”
While the case could be dismissed “without prejudice,” that doesn’t necessarily mean Boeing would completely walk away from criminal charges. The victims’ families could refile, modify or take the case to another court.
Regardless, the victims’ families plan to urge U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor to reject the proposal and proceed to trial, according to a May 23 press release.
“The families intend to argue that the dismissal unfairly makes concessions to Boeing that other criminal defendants would never receive and fails to hold Boeing accountable for the deaths of 346 persons,” the notice said.
O’Connor blocked last year’s proposal over one of the conditions that involved diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in deciding independent auditor candidates.
